Supreme Court candidates attend mediation

MONTGOMERY - Candidates for the Alabama Supreme Court met Thursday with state bar association judicial election mediators about their escalating campaign rhetoric.

Retired Montgomery County Circuit Judge William Gordon, cochairman of the Alabama State Bar Association's judicial campaign oversight committee, said he and two other committee members met with Supreme Court candidates Deborah Bell Paseur and Greg Shaw. Proceedings from that meeting are sealed.

"I can tell you we had a meeting but what was said and what was done is confidential," Gordon said. Candidate representatives said Paseur and Shaw also agreed to confidentiality.

Paseur, a Democrat, and Shaw, a Republican, have been attempting to link the other's political contributions to the oil industry. Paseur said Shaw is benefiting from an advertising campaign funded by the Center for Individual Freedom that says it is only exercising its freedom of political speech.

Paseur, a retired Lauderdale County district judge, and Shaw, a Court of Criminal Appeals judge, also have received help in responding to the attacks from their political parties. Whether that continues remains to be seen.

Democratic and Republican spokespersons said they have not had recent contact from the campaigns asking them to tone down their rhetoric.

Republican spokesman Philip Bryan said the GOP will support Shaw but may respond independently to what it considers attacks on Shaw.

But something may be happening already because the last e-mail communication from either campaign since Tuesday was a positive announcement of law enforcement endorsements for Paseur.

State Bar President Mark White asked the candidates to air disputes because he fears the race will escalate into a more negative and expensive one than it is, further tarnishing the state's judicial election image.

Paseur and Shaw seek to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Harold See on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Dana Beyerle can be reached at (334) 264-6605 or dtb12345@aol.com.